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The Paradox of Meritocracy in Organizations
Abstract
In this article, we develop and empirically test the theoretical argument that when an organizational culture promotes meritocracy (compared with when it does not), managers in that organization may ironically show greater bias in favor of men over equally performing women in translating employee performance evaluations into rewards and other key career outcomes; we call this the “paradox of meritocracy.” To assess this effect, we conducted three experiments with a total of 445 participants with managerial experience who were asked to make bonus, promotion, and termination recommendations for several employee profiles. We manipulated both the gender of the employees being evaluated and whether the company's core values emphasized meritocracy in evaluations and compensation. The main finding is consistent across the three studies: when an organization is explicitly presented as meritocratic, individuals in managerial positions favor a male employee over an equally qualified female employee by awarding him a larger monetary reward. This finding demonstrates that the pursuit of meritocracy at the workplace may be more difficult than it first appears and that there may be unrecognized risks behind certain organizational efforts used to reward merit. We discuss possible underlying mechanisms leading to the paradox of meritocracy effect as well as the scope conditions under which we expect the effect to occur.
... In a meritocratic culture, employees are likely to have more defined pathways for career advancement and access to development opportunities that align with their qualifications (Maynard et al., 2015). As a result, even if they perceive themselves as overqualified for their current role, they are less likely to experience feelings of stagnation or underutilization, which are familiar sources of job strain (Castilla & Benard, 2010). The transparent and fair evaluation processes inherent in meritocratic cultures can mitigate feelings of injustice or inequity associated with POQ. ...
... Research indicates that when employees perceive their organization as meritocratic, they are more likely to feel that their skills and efforts are recognized and appropriately utilized (Cheng et al., 2020). Previous studies have shown that organizational climates perceived as fair and meritocratic are associated with higher job satisfaction, lower turnover intentions, and reduced employee stress levels (Castilla, 2008;Castilla & Benard, 2010). ...
This study examined the relationship between perceived overqualification (POQ) and employee’s negative megaphoning behavior. Further, we have studied the mediating role of job strain and the moderating role of meritocracy. Employees of service sector organizations were surveyed using a time-lagged data design. The study model was analyzed using PLS-SEM. The findings indicate that (1) POQ is positively related to negative megaphoning behavior; (2) job strain mediates the path between POQ and negative megaphoning behavior; (3) the direct influence of POQ on job strain and indirect impact of POQ on negative megaphoning behavior via job strain is moderated by meritocracy. The findings suggest that organizations should foster meritocratic practices to alleviate job strain and curb negative megaphoning behaviors, promoting a fair and supportive work environment for overqualified employees.
... We summarized indicators in organizational strategy supporting the implementation of a merit system including alignment between HRM strategies and organizational goals (vision), effective and efficient HRM strategies (performance appraisal, education and training), and adequate coordination with other stakeholders (Afrianto & Prasojo, 2020;Cappelli & Keller, 2014;Dwiputrianti, 2018;Okeke-Uzodike & Subban, 2015;Poister et al., 2013;Sehatpour et al., 2022;Ambrosius, 2007;Yarmohammadi-Monfared et al., 2021). Further, studies show organizational culture affects the implementation of a merit system which can be assessed with three indicators, namely the organization's value on a fair reward system based on performance and competency, compliance with applicable legal norms and rules, and encouragement of effective action from employees (Afrianto & Prasojo, 2020;Castilla & Benard, 2010;Furusawa & Brewster, 2015;Schuler et al., 2011;Sehatpour et al., 2022;Wilson, 2010;Yarmohammadi-Monfared et al., 2021). ...
... Other research also shows that the values, beliefs, behavior, understanding, thinking methods, or habits maintained by a group of individuals and the organization as a whole influence organizational members' thinking and behavior (Furusawa & Brewster, 2015). Organizational culture can be an organization's habit of using the status quo, either in the form of compliance with the rules or deviating from the rules (Castilla & Benard, 2010). This then influences the thinking paradigm of employees in regional government. ...
This research aims to compare merit system implementation for top leaders filling positions in North Buton Regency and Kendari City. Another objective is determining the driving and inhibiting factors for implementing the merit system in the two regional government agencies. This study employs the merit principle theory (Stahl, 1979) and the best person theory (McCourt, 2007). The method used is descriptive qualitative; the primary data are obtained from interviews, and secondary data are obtained from documentation and archives. The informant selection technique uses a purposive technique. The research results show that in top leaders filling positions, there are significant differences between the North Buton Regency and Kendari City regarding the merit system principles. The factors influencing the implementation of merit systems in both areas are socio-cultural, political, and organizational. The driving factors to enforce the merit system in Kendari City are greater than its inhibiting factors, while North Buton Regency is the opposite. Nearly all the driving factors in Kendari City are the inhibiting factors in North Buton Regency. However, there is a similarity of non-discriminatory treatment in both local governments. This research contributes to the knowledge and literature pertaining to top leader selection practices in developing countries.
... Salary is intended to be determined based on objective criteria, which are meant to eliminate subconscious prejudice in decision-making (Abraham, 2017;Adam Cobb, 2016;Castilla, 2012). Although it is generally assumed that merit-based reward leads to less inequality than labour market competition and tournament-based rewards (Adam Cobb, 2016;Castilla & Benard, 2010;Nishii et al., 2018), research shows that formalized systems in themselves do not offer protection and can even increase inequalities with the introduction of meritocratic systems (Abraham, 2017;Castilla, 2015;Nielsen, 2016a;Śliwa & Johansson, 2014). ...
... worth, superior quality) than those who are not successful -that is, an exclusive orientation towards talent. One assumes that everyone has an equal chance to be successful regardless of their gender, race, class or other non-merit factors (Castilla & Benard, 2010), but reward allocation and performance evaluation practices that appear meritocratic often result in a skewed distribution of outcomes, regardless of the actual distribution of merit (Joshi et al., 2015). The next section presents a case study on salary differences and salary allocation processes in at Tilburg University, a Dutch medium-sized university in the Netherlands. ...
The ebook edition of this title is Open Access and freely available to read online.
Up until now Talent Management (TM) in higher education institutes has received limited academic attention. This diverse collection offers a thoughtful overview of how talent is defined in higher education; the implementation of TM practices; how this is perceived by employees; and its impact on academic performance. Talent Management in Higher Education uses a multi-level and multi-actor perspective and positions the contemporary TM issues of universities in the broader institutional context in which universities are constituted and the historical developments regarding HRM and TM policies.
Both scholars and practitioners will appreciate the insights into the issues of different academic systems, increasing the readers awareness of the contextual relevance of talent management. All chapters in the book are written by scholars who are expert on research in talent management or in Higher Education, but who are also insiders in the academic community. Through their personal expertise they mirror academia as a research object.
... During the early days of computing, women played vital roles as programmers, making signicant contributions to the eld [7]. Despite their contributions, women have often not been given credit for their work, or their eorts have been less accepted [9,63,64]. Over the decades, the representation of women in software engineering gradually diminished primarily due to cultural and societal factors, perpetuating the misconception that programming is better suited for men and discouraging girls from entering the eld [2,12,60,64]. ...
... Organizations should also evaluate hiring practices which may lead to installing narcissistic and psychopathic leaders, such as hiring based on condence rather than competence and preferencing charisma [11]. However, it is important to remember that any evaluations of competency which take place within a biased system may fail to accurately assess merit [9]. Table 5 gives the ongoing challenges faced by Brazilian women in the software industry. ...
... Salary is intended to be determined based on objective criteria, which are meant to eliminate subconscious prejudice in decision-making (Abraham, 2017;Adam Cobb, 2016;Castilla, 2012). Although it is generally assumed that merit-based reward leads to less inequality than labour market competition and tournament-based rewards (Adam Cobb, 2016;Castilla & Benard, 2010;Nishii et al., 2018), research shows that formalized systems in themselves do not offer protection and can even increase inequalities with the introduction of meritocratic systems (Abraham, 2017;Castilla, 2015;Nielsen, 2016a;Śliwa & Johansson, 2014). ...
... worth, superior quality) than those who are not successful -that is, an exclusive orientation towards talent. One assumes that everyone has an equal chance to be successful regardless of their gender, race, class or other non-merit factors (Castilla & Benard, 2010), but reward allocation and performance evaluation practices that appear meritocratic often result in a skewed distribution of outcomes, regardless of the actual distribution of merit (Joshi et al., 2015). The next section presents a case study on salary differences and salary allocation processes in at Tilburg University, a Dutch medium-sized university in the Netherlands. ...
... (e.g., Castilla and Benard, 2010), and hiring (e.g., Fernandez-Mateo and Fernandez, 2016;Leung and Koppman, 2018). The hiring context is especially important because it drives both occupational and economic sorting (Bills, Di Stasio, and Gë rxhani, 2017;Rivera, 2020). ...
A substantial body of research examines the relevance of hiring as a source of gender disparities in organizations. However, there is limited evidence on how different sets of key organizational decision makers contribute to gender disparities in hiring outcomes. To address this research gap, we exploit the staggered adoption of a new hiring process in a multinational corporation, which transferred from hiring managers to HR departments the task of shortlisting: narrowing a large pool of candidates to a more manageable set before final decision making. Using a difference-in-differences design, we find that the transfer of shortlisting responsibility increased the share of newly hired women. Additional tests based on quantitative and qualitative data are largely consistent with our finding that the transfer of shortlisting from hiring managers to HR departments led to fewer gender disparities in hiring outcomes given the increased expert knowledge in evaluating candidates and reduced opportunity costs for conducting such evaluations. Our setting offers a unique opportunity to help isolate key organizational decision makers’ role in contributing to gender disparities in hiring outcomes, and our findings have implications for how to alleviate gender disparities in employment.
... Women may be seen as less capable and their leadership abilities may be questioned (Eagly and Carli 2007). Gender bias may also stem from male-centric academic cultures, which posit an ideal of 'being available 24/7' and a complete dedication to academia (Castilla and Benard 2010). While the specific mechanism behind female underrepresentation is unclear, this underrepresentation itself is undisputed, as only about 15 percent of German economics professors are female (Friebel, Fuchs-Schündeln, andWeinberger 2021, 1432f.). ...
This study uses event history analysis to show what promotes tenure in German economics, utilizing a unique and virtually complete national dataset that includes 70,657 publications from 3955 economists, of which 1196 received tenure between 1984 and 2021. While existing theories emphasize that gender discrimination, parenthood, human capital, academic prestige, and social capital explain who is tenured, no study has thus far evaluated these factors concurrently across an entire national population of economists. Our findings reveal that fewer women receive tenure than would be expected based on their representation in the candidate pool. However, gender, parenthood, and non-reviewed publications do not significantly influence tenure attainment after controlling for covariates. Instead, mobility, accessing advanced career stages, and peer-reviewed journal articles are most strongly related to receiving tenure. Independently of productivity, academic prestige, such as receiving grants and awards, also impacts tenure prospects significantly, as does social capital, measured through research mobility, interim professorships and co-authorships. Being affiliated with prestigious universities shows minimal effects on receiving tenure, however. These findings imply that mobility, moving up career stages and being productive by publishing peer-reviewed journal articles are the strongest determinants of becoming a tenured economics professor in Germany.
... Downplaying intersectional identities also manifested in the form of subscribing to the ideology of meritocracy (Castilla & Benard, 2010;Meliou & Ozbilgin, 2024). Ruby, for example, deflected the struggles facing their specific minority group by referring to the universality of the problem: Even for men, they're still in a full-time job in a bank, no matter how much they want to do it [being an entrepreneur]. ...
It is well documented that female minority founders (FMFs) face disadvantages in starting and scaling their ventures. However, the causes of these disadvantages—as well as how FMFs navigate these challenges—are less understood. Our article adopts an intersectionality lens, which allows us to focus on and examine the multiple intersecting dimensions of FMFs (such as gender, ethnicity, migrant status, and social class) and how they influence their entrepreneurial experiences. Drawing upon an inductive study of FMFs operating in Berlin, we build a theory on intersectional identity and image work in startup contexts. We found key structural barriers that serve to sustain inequality and continue to favor more prototypical founders. However, we also identified sources of penalties and privileges that exacerbate (or mitigate) inequality and result in founder image discrepancy. Our analysis demonstrates how founder image discrepancy can prompt FMFs to engage in a progression of intersectional identity and image work that shapes their founder identity. These findings advance entrepreneurship and identity research by extending our understanding of how intersectional identity challenges and opportunities manifest and can be managed within startup contexts.
... However, other scholars (e.g., Due Billing, 2005;Freeman, 1972-73) argue that it is precisely those formalized and bureaucratic elements that are considered inhuman and potentially oppressive that can contribute to creating more humane and equitable work environments: For instance, management by general rules and clear responsibilities is assumed to create predictability and transparency. Scholars hope that allocating positions and resources irrespective of the individual person, in orientation towards meritocratic standards, weakens informal networks of privileged organizational members or bias against minorities and members of historically disadvantaged groups (critical: Amis et al., 2020;Castilla and Benard, 2010). To put it bluntly, within this strand of literature, scholars interpret the core characteristics of formal organizations either as a curse or as a blessing when it comes to their transformative potential. ...
In this chapter, we analyze scholarly approaches that explicitly imagine organizations as capable of ‘doing good’ and investigate which answers they give to the urgent need of stimulating socio-ecological transformations. We compare three streams of literature on open, inclusive and alternative organizations. We define the transformative potential of these approaches as related to ideas of (1) de-/postgrowth and other alternatives to profit-oriented organizing; and of (2) making room for historically disadvantaged and particularly marginalized groups at the organizational power table. In our conclusion, we argue that the scale of transformative change needed asks scholars to transgress commonly separated camps of scholarship and, thus, to eclectically engage with all three organizational approaches to organize for socio-ecological transformations. At the same time, this requires challenging institutionalized underpinnings of how we organize scholarship as such.
... The persistent exclusion of racially minoritized people, particularly Black Americans, from the labor market is symptomatic of the racism often embedded in organizational hiring and promotion practices (Mobasseri et al., in press;Quillian & Lee, 2023;Ray, 2019). These inequalities persist even as organizations state commitments to diversity (Quiroz-Gutierrez, 2021) and meritocracy (Cappelli, 1999;Castilla & Benard, 2010). We study perceptions of racial progress because these perceptions may be central to our understanding of why these stated commitments do not necessarily lead to the dismantling of racist organizational structures and set the stage for understanding how more accurate perceptions of racial progress may be pivotal to dismantling racism in organizations. ...
Despite a checkered racial history, people in the United States generally believe the nation has made steady, incremental progress toward achieving racial equality. In this article, we investigate whether this U.S. racial progress narrative will extend to how the workforce views the effectiveness of organizational efforts surrounding diversity, equity, and inclusion. Across three studies (N = 1,776), we test whether Black and White U.S. workers overestimate organizational racial progress in executive representation. We also examine whether these misperceptions, surrounding organizational progress, drive misunderstandings regarding the relative ineffectiveness of common organizational diversity policies. Overall, we find evidence that U.S. workers largely overestimate organizational racial progress, believe that organizational progress will naturally improve over time, and that these misperceptions of organizational racial progress may drive beliefs in the effectiveness of diversity, equity, and inclusion policies.
... As the prevalence of GPT qua translators and MT escalates, their impacts necessitate comprehensive consideration within legal and political frameworks (O'Neil 2016). Gender bias in algorithms and datasets (Criado Perez 2019), hostile work environments that fail to safeguard women's safety (Rosser 2004), implicit biases affecting equal opportunities for women to be recruited, promoted, and recognized in the tech sector (Castilla and Benard 2010;King and Jones 2016), the dearth of women in leadership positions within tech companies (Hewlett et al. 2008), or social dynamics in the division of labor affording unstable positions to women (Cockburn and Ormrod 1993;Hochschild and Machung 2003) are issues that demand specific attention in efforts to develop human-centric AI. Chapter 2 ("The Legal Rationales of the Leading Technological Models. ...
... In such environments, the additional load placed upon non-normative individuals can manifest in various ways. Such load might involve devoting extra time and energy to navigating barriers, stereotypes, and biases that hinder their progress (Castilla and Benard 2010). Navigating such barriers can include, for instance, the need to constantly validate their presence and qualifications, which diverts attention from their actual work and possibilities to contribute. ...
... In the lab, Castilla and Benard found that when experimenters described subjects' employers as nondiscriminatory, subjects did not censor their own gender biases. 7 Employees who go through diversity training may not, subsequently, take responsibility for avoiding discrimination. Kaiser and colleagues found that when subjects are told that their employers have prodiversity measures such as training, they presume that the workplace is free of bias and react harshly to claims of discrimination. ...
... Accurately measuring merit is complex and subjective, with traditional metrics potentially disadvantaging individuals from underprivileged backgrounds (Bellows, 2009). Furthermore, unequal access to resources and opportunities creates an uneven playing field from the outset (Castilla & Benard, 2010). Even with formal equality of opportunity, existing social networks and power structures can favor those from privileged backgrounds, hindering true meritocratic advancement (Poocharoen & Brillantes, 2013). ...
Meritocracy, a corner stone of modern organizational ethos, ostensibly promises equal opportunities and advancement based solely on individual capabilities and achievements, regardless of background or affiliation. Meritocracy raises the returns on human capital management by ensuring that individuals are free to contribute and succeed, whatever their social rank or personal connections. However, its application within the context of Pakistani's professional services sector remains largely unexplored. Therefore, by presenting a qualitative conceptual framework, this research delves into the intricate dynamics of meritocracy within professional services firms in Pakistan, offering an empirical analysis of the extent to which merit-based principles guide organizational practices. Employing a qualitative approach in terms of face to face interviews, this study investigates the perceptions and realities of meritocracy among employees and leaders within professional services firms. Through qualitative interviews, it seeks to identify the factors influencing meritocratic practices, including cultural norms, institutional frameworks, and organizational policies. Additionally, the research examines the impact of nepotism, favoritism, and other forms of bias on meritocratic ideals, shedding light on the challenges to their implementation in Pakistan's socio-cultural landscape.
Building on research on star performance, gender, and situational constraints, we introduce a longitudinal process model explaining the gender gap in star emergence. We argue that star emergence is less likely for women than men due to stardom's association with men and masculinity. As a result, situational constraints are more likely to insulate women's performance in terms of knowledge, skills, and abilities development and evaluation (e.g., access to vicarious deliberate practice, biased standards), motivation (e.g., competition intensity, negative interpersonal behavior), and opportunity (e.g., access to high potential tasks, partner supportiveness in the extra‐work environment). We theorize that these factors lead to insulation cycles that reduce the likelihood of women emerging as stars over time. We also offer propositions about mitigators (e.g., strategic diversity goals and influential sponsors) that might attenuate these insulating effects. Finally, we discuss theoretical implications of understanding gender gaps in star emergence (e.g., performance insulation as gender inequity, the importance of a longitudinal perspective, insulation cycles, and star longevity) and practical implications for organizations to create equitable environments for star emergence (e.g., focusing on performance equity and facilitating gender inclusivity). We conclude that greater insight into the role of gender in star performance can also contribute to the broader understanding of gender gaps in organizations.
High-potential programs offer a swift path up the corporate ladder for those who secure a place on them. However, the evaluation of “potential” occurs under considerable uncertainty, creating fertile ground for gender bias. We document that men are more likely than women to be designated as high potential, and unpack how gendered responses to employees’ expressions of passion—one of the most commonly used criteria used in evaluating potential—both penalize women and advantage men in high-potential selection processes. First, and based on prior research on gender display rules, we suggest that expressions of passion are viewed as a less appropriate emotional display for women than men, giving rise to a female penalty. Second, and drawing on shifting standards theorizing, we posit that expressions of passion shift evaluators’ predictions of candidates’ diligence more meaningfully for men than women, creating a male advantage—particularly for men who are reasonably high but not exceptional performers. We provide supporting evidence across two studies examining placement into high-potential programs in a real talent review setting (N = 796) and a preregistered experiment that uses videos featuring trained actors (N = 1,366), supported by two supplementary studies (N = 1,590). Taken together, this work sheds light on the ways the increasing emphasis on passion in contemporary workplaces may exacerbate gender inequalities. Progressing our understanding of gender bias beyond gendered reactions to criteria that penalize women (i.e., backlash), our work also unveils a novel and particularly pernicious form of gender bias driven by gendered inferences about passion that advantage men.
Supplemental Material: The online supplement is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2023.18018 .
Although compromising the largest racioethnic minority population, the experiences of Latinx women employees has remained largely unexplored. The purpose of this article is to introduce the Latinx women Critical Theory framework to organizational researchers and discuss potential avenues of expansion in the field. The article highlights various studies conducted in the legal and education fields that have used the Latinx women Critical Theory framework. In addition, research on the perceptions of the Latinx women community have been synthesized. This helps us to understand the current research state and identify future research gaps. We believe that Latinx women Critical Theory can be used in organizational settings as a guide for researchers to understand and interpret the Latinx women workplace experience. Due to the scant amount of research on this population, the proposed framework can be used as a starting point for developing a research agenda on this topic.
In the tech world, there is a glaring issue regarding diversity, especially gender. Despite women showing immense talent and interest in tech careers, they often face numerous obstacles to getting into and staying in the industry. It is particularly tough for women from low-income backgrounds, who have even more hurdles to overcome. This imbalance is not just a problem in one part of the world—it is a global issue affecting places like Africa and the Western world.
This article dives into these problems and proposes a path forward for the future
Racialized inequalities in organizations and workplaces are reproduced not only by the discrimination of non‐whites but also by behaviors among whites aimed at counteracting and resisting initiatives and measures aimed at achieving racial equality. On this background, the purpose of the present study was to empirically investigate expressions of white fragility, white counterreactions, and institutional resistance in organizational contexts in Sweden, as well as how these processes relate to system justificatory ideologies such as colorblind racism and meritocracy. In doing so, the study used a cross‐sectional design and a large sample ( N = 2774) of adults from the Swedish labor market to test hypotheses about the investigated concepts. The results of the study provided support for the hypotheses that white fragility, white counterreactions, and institutional resistance are relevant concepts to the understanding of the racial dynamics and the reproduction of racialized inequalities in organizations also outside the North American context (in this case Sweden). In addition, the study shows that white fragility is positively associated with colorblind racism and belief in meritocracy and highlights the role of these ideologies in legitimizing and maintaining workplace inequalities.
Organizations play a central role in replicating societal inequalities. Despite theories of gendered and racialized organizations, evidence of unequal outcomes, and research on proposed mechanisms, we have few intersectional analyses demonstrating how the promotion process varies by race and gender across job levels in actual organizations. In this first-ever analysis of advancement in a U.S. firm by gender, race, and job, we run random effects logistic regression models on five years of novel longitudinal data from the software engineering workforce of a U.S.-based technology company. Results show intersectional performance-reward bias in patterns that help maintain the racialized gendered hierarchy so commonly observed in organizations: White men overrepresented at the top, women of color overrepresented at the bottom, and in the technology sector, men of Asian descent overrepresented in midlevel technical jobs and White women overrepresented in midlevel management positions. Findings suggest monitoring promotions by gender, race, and position to make visible biases that continue to impede workplace equity.
Diving deeper, this chapter looks into the mutual influence of humans and AI. Grounded in the multidimensional framework introduced in Chapter 1, and the A-Frame that applies it in the context of human Agency Amid AI, we will examine human consciousness and artificial consciousness. From here we look at inferred intelligence, and the potential of tandems that leverage the complementarity of natural and artificial perception. The technological transition that humanity is traversing from one industrial revolution to the next is examined, with the proposition to expand the traditional triple bottom line to include purpose; the Quadruple bottom line recognizes the responsibility of the private sector towards the Common Good. This sets the stage to explore the place of human trust and artificial integrity, and the type of regulation needed to establish guardrails that grow with the challenge of an evolving subject. Data is looked at as the central bottleneck of an inclusive society, as biased inputs result in biased outcomes, and the amplification of exclusion in a hybrid society. Ironically the stronger the technology in our life grows, the weaker our cognitive defense mechanisms become, and the more at risk we are to fall prey to the all pervasive nature of artificial persuasion. Unless we are aware of the causes and consequences of our own perception, the potential of artificial influence, combined with the temptation of delegating mental effort to artificial assistance jeopardizes our autonomy, and the formation of free will. An exit from this dangerous dynamic starts by identifying what we want, and why; to clarify who we are and what we stand for. The alignment of humans and technology starts with personal and interpersonal harmonization. That alignment of individual aspirations and actions is the precursor of algorithms that are aligned with aspirations. This dynamic cannot be reverse engineered. The hybrid alignment conundrum cannot be solved online.
This chapter enables you to consider the wider goals of virtual team collaboration for a better future. It helps you to contribute to a sustainable development, to promote diversity and ensure equity, and to engage in responsible research and innovation. You will encounter ways of handling the Collingridge dilemma which describes that humans can never fully control technology, particularly not its unintended consequences, and you will learn how to involve stakeholders in technological assessment. You can then work towards a more ethical, sustainable and responsible organization and leadership, and apply these considerations to digital technology, artificial intelligence and human-technology interactions.
The percentage of women in academia is still lower than what would be expected statistically, especially in the sciences and among faculty (tenured professors). Theories on the “glass-ceiling effect” suggest that men form exclusive professional networks among other men, while women remain systematically outside. With this paper, we aim to shed some light on this by exploiting a dataset that tracks sensor-based interaction behavior at four academic conferences in the field of Computational Social Science. We look at the number of minutes junior academics interact with tenured professors during the lunch and coffee breaks of these conferences. If glass-ceiling theory holds, we expect to see that female junior academics show fewer interactions to seniors, especially to male seniors. We also expect to see that junior women interact more often than junior men with lower-level academics. While we indeed find evidence for this last hypothesis, we do not find evidence for the first two expectations. We find that junior women show more interactions then men to senior scholars, especially to male professors, but also to female professors. Overall, we do not find evidence for one important mechanism of the glass-ceiling effect, namely, that male gatekeepers exclusively interact with males only, at least not at a conference setting and with this type of measure.
Immigrants and their native-born children often face considerable wage penalties relative to natives, but less is known about whether this inequality arises through differences in educational qualifications, segregation across occupations and establishments, or unequal pay for the same work. Using linked employer–employee data from Norway, the authors ask whether immigrant–native wage disparities 1) reflect differences in detailed educational qualifications, labor market segregation, or within-job pay differences; 2) differ by immigrant generation; and 3) vary across different segments of the labor market. They find that immigrant–native wage disparities primarily reflect sorting into lower-paying jobs, and that wage disadvantages are considerably reduced across immigrant generations. When doing the same work for the same employer, immigrant-background workers, especially children of immigrants, earn similar wages to natives. Sorting into jobs seems more meritocratic for university graduates, for professionals, and in the public sector, but within-job pay differences are strikingly similar across market segments.
Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies have increasingly gained importance in recent years as companies have begun to recognise the importance of creating a more inclusive workplace. Research has shown, however, that working practices do not always reflect policies. This article uses the case of disability to investigate the challenges and facilitators of implementing DEI policies and putting them into practice. Based on 29 interviews with people working in the private sphere, the findings suggest that organisations face three main challenges in seeking to put disability-related DEI policies into practice: (i) getting people on board, (ii) gathering information, and (iii) meeting increased demand for knowledge work. Having said that, integrating policy and practice is facilitated by (a) engaging in partnerships, (b) garnering line managers’ support, and (c) fostering open communication.
Racial inequality is remarkably resilient in organizational and labor market contexts despite efforts to resolve it, which raises significant questions about the mechanisms underlying its persistence. We argue that organizational efforts that increase the inclusion of underrepresented racial groups in the short term may conceal an emergent mechanism that paradoxically results in exclusion over time. The emergent mechanism stems from an acute misalignment between the scope of allocation in the matching process and the scope of valuation in the evaluation process, which ultimately increases voluntary and involuntary turnover among underrepresented racial groups. We examine this paradox through a revelatory case in higher education. Drawing on comprehensive administrative and research performance data from a large (R1) U.S. public university, we find that Black assistant professors are significantly more likely than their White colleagues to be allocated to non-standard positions, i.e., formally appointed in two academic departments with shared compensation. Our results demonstrate that such non-standard appointments are associated with a significant decline in research productivity, which remains central during the evaluation process. The end result is that jointly appointed assistant professors—among whom Blacks are disproportionately represented—experience lower likelihoods of retention.
Does the merit‐based selection process help to reduce gender discrimination in public administrations? To answer this question, we conducted an in‐depth case study in Mexico and built two original databases for analysis. First, we measure vertical and horizontal discrimination, and second, we examine merit‐based competitions for access to upper management levels of the Mexican public administration to explore their role in reproducing gender discrimination. We find the existence of both vertical and horizontal segregation, and the analysis of merit‐based competition results shows that women have difficulty winning competitions for the highest hierarchical levels and traditionally male sectors. Based on these findings, we explore the role of merit‐based competitions in reproducing gender discrimination. Finally, we urge for the inclusion of a gender perspective in public service reforms in Latin America.
Organizational scholars highlight challenges in reducing inequality within organizations. Due to unanticipated consequences, many programs launched by organizations fail to accomplish these goals. We leverage historical data from the Dutch East India Company to claim that training programs may be an effective tool against inequality when coupled with teamwork incentives and included in broader programs for change. We study the effects of these programs on the unequal promotion rates between Dutchmen and non-Dutchmen across periods of time in which those programs were offered and in which they were not. Our analyses of promotions to top-ranked positions on the Company’s ships suggest a two-fold conclusion: first, the introduction of leadership training and teamwork incentives reduced the differential weights given to the experience of Dutchmen and non-Dutchmen; and, second, those benefits disappeared when the policies were rescinded after a change in top leadership. The results underscore the opportunities and difficulties that organizations face in implementing durable interventions against inequality.
La proliferación de instrumentos de medición que datifican el desempeño es expresión de la relevancia de la cultura de evaluación meritocrática en las organizaciones contemporáneas. En las universidades, las/os investigadoras/es están sujetas/os a evaluaciones constantes de su desempeño y se les recompensa en coherencia. En esta investigación buscamos comprender cómo interactúan las/os académicas/os con los instrumentos de datificación del desempeño en el contexto de un régimen meritocrático. Para ello, realizamos sesenta entrevistas a académicas/os de alto rendimiento en Chile. Mediante el análisis de repertorios interpretativos, identificamos cuatro categorías: 1) La evaluación devuelve una imagen personal donde el desempeño se explica por voluntarismo mágico, 2) La evaluación construye un límite de prestigio que indica quién merece reconocimiento, 3) Se genera distancia crítica respecto al uso de datos que miden desempeño y 4) Se establece una relación lúdica con los instrumentos de evaluación que permite usarlos con fines personales. La conclusión apunta a la emergencia de un sujeto académico que resuelve las contradicciones de estos repertorios apostando por el mérito como mejor dato de su lugar en la academia respecto a sus pares.
The trickle‐down effect has been proposed as one means to address women's continued underrepresentation in leadership positions globally. While earlier research supported the trickle‐down effect's prediction that increasing women's representation at higher managerial levels will positively impact women's careers at lower managerial levels, recent studies provide inconsistent evidence, leading to claims that it may be spurious. Due to data limitation, most prior trickle‐down research has explored just two managerial levels—board and executives—making it difficult to separate a trickle‐down effect from external pressures (e.g., shareholders, law) or internal factors (e.g., organizational culture) that may cause it. Furthermore, prior research does not adequately account for women's representation in managerial pipelines, a crucial source of potential managerial talent. To address these concerns, we analyze Australian workplace panel data (2014–2020) that allow for a more robust test of the trickle‐down effect than previously examined. Our results support the trickle‐down effect across multiple managerial levels below the board level, independent of managerial pipeline effects. The trickle‐down and pipeline effects were only observed for positions immediately above and below each managerial level. This highlights the proximity of positions within management hierarchies where the in‐group preference and women's direct advocacy for other women are most likely to occur. Our study suggests that simply appointing more women to top positions, such as boards, while beneficial, is not enough to address gender inequality in management meaningfully. We recommend that rather than focusing on gender representation at the top, organizations should set gender diversity goals and monitor progress at all managerial levels. We conclude with implications for theory, practice, and future research.
This research shows stereotype activation is controlled by chronic egalitarian goals. In the first 2 studies it was found that the stereotype of women is equally available to individuals with and without chronic goals, and the discriminant validity of the concept of egalitarian goals was established. In the next 2 experiments, differences in stereotype activation as a function of this individual difference were found. In Study 3, participants read attributes following stereotypical primes. Facilitated response times to stereotypical attributes were found for nonchronics but not for chronics. This lack of facilitation occurred at stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) where effortful correction processes could not operate, demonstrating preconscious control of stereotype activation due to chronic goals. In Study 4, inhibition of the stereotype was found at an SOA where effortful processes of stereotype suppression could not operate. The data reveal that goals are activated and used preconsciously to prevent stereotype activation, demonstrating both the controllability of stereotype activation and the implicit role of goals in cognitive control.
Social behavior is ordinarily treated as being under conscious (if not always thoughtful) control. However, considerable evidence now supports the view that social behavior often operates in an implicit or unconscious fashion. The identifying feature of implicit cognition is that past experience influences judgment in a fashion not introspectively known by the actor. The present conclusion—that attitudes, self-esteem, and stereotypes have important implicit modes of operation—extends both the construct validity and predictive usefulness of these major theoretical constructs of social psychology. Methodologically, this review calls for increased use of indirect measures—which are imperative in studies of implicit cognition. The theorized ordinariness of implicit stereotyping is consistent with recent findings of discrimination by people who explicitly disavow prejudice. The finding that implicit cognitive effects are often reduced by focusing judges’ attention on their judgment task provides a basis for evaluating applications (such as affirmative action) aimed at reducing such unintended discrimination.
A role congruity theory of prejudice toward female leaders proposes that perceived incongruity between the female gender role and leadership roles leads to 2 forms of prejudice: (a) perceiving women less favorably than men as potential occupants of leadership roles and (b) evaluating behavior that fulfills the prescriptions of a leader role less favorably when it is enacted by a woman. One consequence is that attitudes are less positive toward female than male leaders and potential leaders. Other consequences are that it is more difficult for women to become leaders and to achieve success in leadership roles. Evidence from varied research paradigms substantiates that these consequences occur, especially in situations that heighten perceptions of incongruity between the female gender role and leadership roles.
Three experiments supported the hypothesis that people are more willing to express attitudes that could be viewed as prejudiced when their past behavior has established their credentials as nonprejudiced persons. In Study 1, participants given the opportunity to disagree with blatantly sexist statements were later more willing to favor a man for a stereotypically male job. In Study 2, participants who first had the opportunity to select a member of a stereotyped group (a woman or an African American) for a category-neutral job were more likely to reject a member of that group for a job stereotypically suited for majority members. In Study 3, participants who had established credentials as nonprejudiced persons revealed a greater willingness to express a politically incorrect opinion even when the audience was unaware of their credentials. The general conditions under which people feel licensed to act on illicit motives are discussed.
This chapter examines one form of contemporary racism, “aversive racism.” Aversive racism is characterized by a conflict between the denial of personal prejudice and unconscious negative feelings and beliefs, which may be rooted in normal psychological processes (such as social categorization). In the chapter, we review experimental evidence of the existence and operation of aversive racism in the behavior of Whites toward Blacks, with emphasis on studies of unintentional discrimination in selection and hiring. Then we explore approaches for combating aversive racism. Specifically, within the framework of the Common Ingroup Identity Model, we demonstrate how developing a sense of shared identity between members of different groups can redirect the forces of social categorization toward the reduction of racial biases. We conclude with a discussion of the social and legal implications of aversive racism and strategies for combating it.
Three studies tested basic assumptions derived from a theoretical model based on the dissociation of automatic and controlled processes involved in prejudice. Study 1 supported the model's assumption that high- and low-prejudice persons are equally knowledgeable of the cultural stereotype. The model suggests that the stereotype is automatically activated in the presence of a member (or some symbolic equivalent) of the stereotyped group and that low-prejudice responses require controlled inhibition of the automatically activated stereotype. Study 2, which examined the effects of automatic stereotype activation on the evaluation of ambiguous stereotype-relevant behaviors performed by a race-unspecified person, suggested that when subjects' ability to consciously monitor stereotype activation is precluded, both high- and low-prejudice subjects produce stereotype-congruent evaluations of ambiguous behaviors. Study 3 examined high- and low-prejudice subjects' responses in a consciously directed thought-listing task. Consistent with the model, only low-prejudice subjects inhibited the automatically activated stereotype-congruent thoughts and replaced them with thoughts reflecting equality and negations of the stereotype. The relation between stereotypes and prejudice and implications for prejudice reduction are discussed.
Unlike many models of bias correction, our flexible correction model posits that corrections occur when judges are motivated and able to adjust assessments of targets according to their naive theories of how the context affects judgments of the target(s). In the current research, people flexibly correct assessments of different targets within the same context according to the differing theories associated with the context-target pairs. In Study 1, shared theories of assimilation and contrast bias are identified. Corrections consistent with those theories are obtained in Studies 2 and 3. Study 4 shows that idiographic measures of thoeries of bias predict the direction and magnitude of corrections. Implications of this work for corrections of attributions and bias removal in general are discussed.
On the surface, it is not readily apparent how some performance appraisal research issues inform performance appraisal practice. Because performance appraisal is an applied topic, it is useful to periodically consider the current state of performance research and its relation to performance appraisal practice. This review examines the performance appraisal literature published in both academic and practitioner outlets between 1985 and 1990, briefly discusses the current state of performance appraisal practice, highlights the juxtaposition of research and practice, and suggests directions for further research.
Equal opportunity in the workplace is thought to be the direct legacy of the civil rights and feminist movements and the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964. Yet, as Frank Dobbin demonstrates, corporate personnel experts--not Congress or the courts--were the ones who determined what equal opportunity meant in practice, designing changes in how employers hire, promote, and fire workers, and ultimately defining what discrimination is, and is not, in the American imagination. Dobbin shows how Congress and the courts merely endorsed programs devised by corporate personnel. He traces how the first measures were adopted by military contractors worried that the Kennedy administration would cancel their contracts if they didn't take "affirmative action" to end discrimination. These measures built on existing personnel programs, many designed to prevent bias against unionists. Dobbin follows the changes in the law as personnel experts invented one wave after another of equal opportunity programs. He examines how corporate personnel formalized hiring and promotion practices in the 1970s to eradicate bias by managers; how in the 1980s they answered Ronald Reagan's threat to end affirmative action by recasting their efforts as diversity-management programs; and how the growing presence of women in the newly named human resources profession has contributed to a focus on sexual harassment and work/life issues. Inventing Equal Opportunity reveals how the personnel profession devised--and ultimately transformed--our understanding of discrimination.
This study shows that the organization of work, particularly the
structure of jobs, can sustain or erode gender and racial disadvantage. Restructuring work around team work and weaker job boundaries can improve women’s and minorities’ visibility and reduce
stereotyping and thus should reduce their career disadvantage. Proponents of bureaucratic formalization argue, in contrast, that relaxing formal job definitions and emphasizing social relations at work
will deepen ascriptive disadvantage. The reorganization of work in
corporate America over the last two decades provides a test case.
Using unique data on the life histories of more than 800 organizations, the author examines whether alleviating job segregation
leads to better career outcomes for women and minorities. This study
finds that when employers adopt popular team and training programs that increase cross-functional collaboration, ascriptive inequality declines. Similar programs that do not transcend job boundaries do not lead to such increases. The results point to different
effects at the intersection of gender and race.
Gender disparities in wages and attainment caused by employer discrimination can come about by three very different processes: allocative discrimination, within-job wage discrimination, and valuative discrimination. For the United States, it has been established that within-job wage discrimination no longer is a major source of wage differences, while valuative discrimination potentially is. Less known is the role of allocative discrimination, especially in the hiring process, which we identify as the point where discrimination is most feasible. Our analysis uses personnel data on all entrants into a large U.S. service organization in the period 1978-86, focusing on managerial, administrative, and professional employees. We study the placement at initial hire and then follow job levels, wages, promotions, as well as departures, in years subsequent to hire.
Drawing on neoclassical economic, internal labor market, and devaluation theories, we examine how the sex composition of jobs and the sex of individual workers affect earnings, depending upon the formalization of the pay type. Using personnel data for over 8,000 employees, we confirm the existence of a negative relationship between earnings and the proportion female in a job. We also find that for less-formalized pay types (cash incentive bonuses), sex-composition and individual-sex effects are larger than for more formalized pay (merit raises and base salary). Together, these findings support devaluation explanations, suggest that incentive bonuses may widen the earnings gap between women and men, and have implications for the design of pay structures in organizations.
This essay reviews recent theory and research on organizations and social stratification, focusing on two dimensions of inequality that are affected by organizations and their environments: (a) how rewards and opportunities vary as a function of organizational attributes and (b) how enterprises differ in their criteria for matching workers and jobs. The effects of reward structures and sorting processes on workers, organizational performance, and interorganizational relations are also considered briefly. Since many hypotheses about labor markets concern links between organizations and socioeconomic achievement, there is a need for comparative organizational research to complement analyses at the individual and aggregate levels. Moreover, the interdependence of career outcomes within and among enterprises is widely recognized but requires explicit study. Future research will benefit immeasurably from the development and testing of hypotheses about how organizations and environments influence labor market processes.
Researchers studied 162 male undergraduates in an experiment designed to investigate haw the experience of unfair treatment affects the reactions of nonbeneficiaries of sex-based preferential selection in terms of responses to the work task, characterizations of the woman beneficiary, and prosocial orientation to the work setting. The basis of selection (merit or preference), the comparative ability of the participant and the selectee (superior, inferior, equal, or unknown) and the presence or absence of one type of explanatory justification for the selection decision (an ideological account) were systematically varied. Results indicated that preferential selection can produce negative reactions on the part of nonbeneficiaries, However. reactions to preferential selection were not always uniform, and procedural and distributive aspects of unfairness concerns were found to have consequences for different types of nonbeneficiary reactions. In addition, the mitigating effects of the ideological account were found to be limited to situations in which the beneficiary and nonbeneficiary were believed to be equally qualified.
Rocked by a flurry of high-profile sex discrimination lawsuits in the 1990s, Wall Street was supposed to have cleaned up its act. It hasn't. Selling Women Short is a powerful new indictment of how America's financial capital has swept enduring discriminatory practices under the rug. Wall Street is supposed to be a citadel of pure economics, paying for performance and evaluating performance objectively. People with similar qualifications and performance should receive similar pay, regardless of gender. They don't. Comparing the experiences of men and women who began their careers on Wall Street in the late 1990s, Louise Roth finds not only that women earn an average of 29 percent less but also that they are shunted into less lucrative career paths, are not promoted, and are denied the best clients. "Selling Women Short reveals the subtle structural discrimination that occurs when the unconscious biases of managers, coworkers, and clients influence performance evaluations, work distribution, and pay. In their own words, Wall Street workers describe how factors such as the preference to associate with those of the same gender contribute to systematic inequality".
Two studies investigated whether a stigma of incompetence marks those associated with affirmative action programs. In an experiment, 129 male and female undergraduates reviewed the application materials of someone said to be recently hired for one of two jobs. The hiree was either a man or a woman, and the woman either was or was not associated with an affirmative action program. The affirmative action label was found to negatively affect the perceived competence of women hirees regardless of the degree to which the job was male sex-typed. A field investigation in which 184 White men provided information about their co-workers supported these results. It additionally demonstrated that the relationship between perceived competence and presumed affirmative action status held not only when co-workers were White women but when they were Black men and Black women as well. The affirmative action label also was associated with negative characterizations of activity and potency and, in the field study, interpersonal attributes and prognoses for career progress.
Many formal organizational structures arise as reflections of rationalized institutional rules. The elaboration of such rules in modern states and societies accounts in part for the expansion and increased complexity of formal organizational structures. Institutional rules function as myths which organizations incorporate, gaining legitimacy, resources, stability, and enhanced survival prospects. Organizations whose structures become isomorphic with the myths of the institutional environment-in contrast with those primarily structured by the demands of technical production and exchange-decrease internal coordination and control in order to maintain legitimacy. Structures are decoupled from each other and from ongoing activities. In place of coordination, inspection, and evaluation, a logic of confidence and good faith is employed.
Fifty years after the term “meritocracy” was coined, this book asks where the idea of meritocracy has led.A team of commentators consider diverse topics such as family and meritocracy, meritocracy and ethnic minorities, and what is meant by talentContains commentaries by a selection of researchers, activists and politicians, from Asa Briggs to David Willetts, on the origin, meaning and future of meritocracyDemonstrates that Michael Young, who wrote The Rise of the Meritocracy, was right to question the viability of political systems trying to organise themselves around the idea of meritocracyEssential reading for everyone interested in where we are going, and the future of New Labour itself
Much of the theory in personnel economics relates to effects of monetary incentives on output, but the theory was untested because appropriate data were unavailable. A new data set for the Safelite Glass Corporation tests the predictions that average productivity will rise, the firm will attract a more able workforce, and variance in output across individuals at the firm will rise when it shifts to piece rates. In Safelite, productivity effects amount to a 44-percent increase in output per worker. This firm apparently had selected a suboptimal compensation system, as profits also increased with the change.
Previous research indicates that our initial impressions of events frequently influence how we interpret later information. This experiment explored whether accountability-pressures to justify one's impressions to others-leads people to process information more vigilantly and, as a result, reduces the undue influence of early-formed impressions on final judgments. Subjects viewed evidence from a criminal case and then assessed the guilt of the defendant. The study varied (1) the order of presentation of pro-vs. anti-defendant information, (2) whether subjects expected to justify their decisions and, if so, whether subjects realized that they were accountable prior to or only after viewing the evidence. The results indicated that subjects given the anti/pro-defendant order of information were more likely to perceive the defendant as guilty than subjects given the pro/anti-defendant order of information, but only when subjects did not expect to justify their decisions or expected to justify their decisions only after viewing the evidence. Order of presentation of evidence had no impact when subjects expected to justify their decisions before viewing the evidence. Accountability prior to the evidence evidence also substantially improved free recall of the case material. The results suggest that accountability reduces primacy effects by affecting how people initially encode and process stimulus information.
This essay examines the shift toward "structural" explanations in recent studies of inequality. After reviewing this body of research and some of its shortcomings, we examine its theoretical underpinnings, comparing "structuralist" perspectives on work organization derived from institutional economics and neo-Marxism to more orthodox accounts based on neoclassical and "industrialism" theories. This discussion suggests areas where the different perspectives overlap and diverge. We conclude that work arrangements within the firm and their trend are the focus of most "structural" perspectives on positional stratification; thus, empirical studies grounded at the organizational level are more likely to inform current debates about the "structure of work" than is the growing body of research about structural effects on individual attainment or covariation among industrial/occupational characteristics. Toward that end, an agenda for future research is outlined, focusing on three aspects of work organization: (a) the units which comprise the structure of work and the dimensions underlying economic segmentation; (b) the effects of sectoral differentiation on technical and administrative arrangements within firms; and (c) temporal changes in how enterprises organize production. We provide some illustrations of the kinds of empirical data and research hypotheses required to link research on segmentation and stratification more closely to studies of organizations.
Culture influences action not by providing the ultimate values toward which action is oriented, but by shaping a repertoire or "tool kit" of habits, skills, and styles from which people construct "strategies of action." Two models of cultural influence are developed, for settled and unsettled cultural periods. In settled periods, culture independently influences action, but only by providing resources from which people can construct diverse lines of action. In unsettled cultural periods, explicit ideologies directly govern action, but structural opportunities for action determine which among competing ideologies survive in the long run. This alternative view of culture offers new opportunities for systematic, differentiated arguments about culture's causal role in shaping action.
The purpose of this study was to determine someof the factors that influence outside reviewers andsearch committee members when they are reviewingcurricula vitae, particularly with respect to the gender of the name on the vitae. The participants inthis study were 238 male and female academicpsychologists who listed a university address in the1997 Directory of the American PsychologicalAssociation. They were each sent one of four versions of acurriculum vitae (i.e., female job applicant, male jobapplicant, female tenure candidate, and male tenurecandidate), along with a questionnaire and aself-addressed stamped envelope. All the curricula vitaeactually came from a real-life scientist at twodifferent stages in her career, but the names werechanged to traditional male and female names. Althoughan exclusively between-groups design was used to avoidsparking genderconscious responding, the resultsindicate that the participants were clearly able todistinguish between the qualifications of the jobapplicants versus the tenure candidates, as evidenced bysuggesting higher starting salaries, increasedlikelihood of offering the tenure candidates a job,granting them tenure, and greater respect for theirteaching, research, and service records. Both men andwomen were more likely to vote to hire a male jobapplicant than a female job applicant with an identicalrecord. Similarly, both sexes reported that the male job applicant had done adequate teaching,research, and service experience compared to the femalejob applicant with an identical record. In contrast,when men and women examined the highly competitive curriculum vitae of the real-life scientist whohad gotten early tenure, they were equally likely totenure the male and female tenure candidates and therewas no difference in their ratings of their teaching, research, and service experience. There was nosignificant main effect for the quality of theinstitution or professional rank on selectivity inhiring and tenuring decisions. The results of this study indicate a gender bias for both men and womenin preference for male job applicants.
Argues that the formal structure of many organizations in post-industrial society dramatically reflect the myths of their institutional environment instead of the demands of their work activities. The authors review prevailing theories of the origins of formal structures and the main problem which those theories confront -- namely, that their assumption that successful coordination and control of activity are responsible for the rise of modern formal organization is not substantiated by empirical evidence. Rather, there is a great gap between the formal structure and the informal practices that govern actual work activities. The authors present an alternative source for formal structures by suggesting that myths embedded in the institutional environment help to explain the adoption of formal structures. Earlier sources understood bureaucratization as emanating from the rationalization of the workplace. Nevertheless, the observation that some formal practices are not followed in favor of other unofficial ones indicates that not all formal structures advance efficiency as a rationalized system would require. Therefore another source of legitimacy is required. This is found in conforming the organization's structure to that of the powerful myths that institutionalized products, services, techniques, policies, and programs become. (CAR)
Difference scores have been widely used in studies of fit, similarity, and agreement. Despite their widespread use, difference scores suffer from numerous methodological problems. These problems can be mitigated or avoided with polynomial regression analysis, and this method has become increasingly prevalent during the past decade. Unfortunately, a number of potentially damaging myths have begun to spread regarding the drawbacks of difference scores and the advantages of polynomial regression. If these myths go unchecked, difference scores and the problems they create are likely to persist in studies of fit, similarity, and agreement. This article reviews 10 difference score myths and attempts to dispel these myths, focusing on studies conducted since polynomial regression was formally introduced as an alternative to difference scores.
Existing explanations of tokenism predict similar experiences for all numerically small, low-status groups. These explanations, however, cannot account for variation in the experiences of different low-status minority groups within the same setting. This article develops a theory of tokenism that explains such variation. Drawing on 117 interviews in the leveraged buyout industry (LBO) and a comparison of the differing experiences of female and African American male tokens in that setting, I argue that tokenism is contingent on the local cultural context in which it is embedded. Specifically, I identify two elements of an occupation’s culture—its hierarchy of cultural resources and its image of the ideal worker—that can specify some status characteristics as more relevant to and incompatible with the occupation’s work than others. In LBO, the industry values cultural resources that, on average, women lack but men possess, and the ideal worker is defined such that it directly conflicts with cultural beliefs about motherhood. Consequently, in this context, gender is a more relevant status characteristic for exclusion than is race, and female tokens are differentially disadvantaged. In addition to revising received wisdom about tokenism, this study integrates and advances social psychological and cultural theories of exclusion by deepening our understanding of the role of cultural resources and schemas in occupational inequality.
This paper develops theory about the conditions under which cultural diversity enhances or detracts from work group functioning. From qualitative research in three culturally diverse organizations, we identified three different perspectives on workforce diversity: the integration-and-learning perspective, the access-and-legitimacy perspective, and the discrimination-and-fairness perspective. The perspective on diversity a work group held influenced how people expressed and managed tensions related to diversity, whether those who had been traditionally underrepresented in the organization felt respected and valued by their colleagues, and how people interpreted the meaning of their racial identity at work. These, in turn, had implications for how well the work group and its members functioned. All three perspectives on diversity had been successful in motivating managers to diversify their staffs, but only the integration-and-learning perspective provided the rationale and guidance needed to achieve sustained benefits from diversity. By identifying the conditions that intervene between the demographic composition of a work group and its functioning, our research helps to explain mixed results on the relationship between cultural diversity and work group outcomes.
Do Americans think that, because of Barack Obama’s election, affirmative action and other policies that address racial injustice are no longer necessary? In this study, we examined this question by assessing participants’ perceptions of racial progress and support for remedying racial injustice both prior to and after Barack Obama’s presidential victory. Following the election, participants increased their perception that racism is less of a problem in the US today than in times past. They also expressed less support for policies designed to address racial inequality. Given the continued prevalence of racial disparities in virtually all aspects of American society, these results raise important implications for the status of policies aimed at eliminating racial injustice.
Links organizational change to social inequality by examining how organizational dynamics affected rates of gender integration among California state agencies between 1979 and 1985. The analysis draws on theories of organizations and organization-environment relations to identify factors that influence economic, political, and social pressures for change, the costs of change, and capacities to change in a specific work setting. In conformity with those theories, it is shown that progress toward gender integration has been substantially influenced by the degree of external pressure and vulnerability, the relative sizes of various internal interest groups (eg, women, nonwhites, unions) that favor or oppose integration, the extent of structural inertia to which an organization is prone by virtue of its size and age, and by characteristics of agency leadership. Some implications of these results for studies of organizations and of social inequality are discussed. -Authors
Using longitudinal personnel data from a U.S. Fortune 500 manufacturing firm for the period of 1967 to 1993, I assess the effects of corporate restructuring and power differences between a firm and its managers on the nature and use of different incentives. I extend relative bargaining power theory to predict that a firm's ability to provide incentives in the ways it prefers—bonuses instead of increases to base salary or promotions—varies due to differences over time in monitoring and sanctions stemming from organizational change processes. Findings are consistent with the theory and show a negative effect of bonuses on salary increases and of bonuses on promotions, with tradeoffs greatest when the firm's oversight of rewards was highest and termination threats were most explicit. Further support for the theory is the finding that the strength of the negative effect of bonuses on promotions varied across managerial groups due to differences in managers' bargaining power: “fast-trackers” were much less likely to experience a tradeoff than were low performing managers, and women were less likely to experience a tradeoff than were men.
It is a popular assumption that women and racial minorities who are numeric minorities in high-prestige work groups will advocate for a demographically similar other as a potential work group peer. However, these individuals may face special challenges in fulfilling this role. We discuss how three factors—the general social status associated with a specific demographic characteristic, the demographic composition of the work group, and the differential prestige accorded within organizations to work groups—interact to impact individuals' concerns about being considered valued members of work groups to which they belong (i.e., value threat). Based on an integration of sociological and psychological theories, we argue that value threat adversely affects individuals' propensity to support demographically similar others in selection and promotion processes. We identify three forms that value threat may take in situations involving such personnel decisions: collective threat, favoritism threat, and competitive threat, and we specify factors that may shape the intensity of each form.
This review examines the personal and situational variables that influence an individual's choice of comparative referent. Earlier models (Goodman, 1974; Levine & Moreland, 1987) are considered, which predict referent choice based on the availability of referent information and the relevance of the referent. These models are then expanded to consider situational and personal variables that may influence availability and relevance. Hypotheses detailing the effects of these personal and situational variables on referent choice are presented, and the potential impact of these choices for organizations is explored.